JMortensen

Well, that one kinda didn't go anywhwere... I went out and tried to put a tube across the rear area to see what kind of angle I can get with the cell, and the max angle I was able to acheive was about 4 degrees. I think I'm going to mount the cell flat and if I feel like I need a diffuser later on I'll add a separate piece of sheet aluminum.

From a different thread about fuel cells and diffusers: I'm ready to mount my cell, and I've been thinking about the strakes and diffusers for a couple days now. I think I am going to mount my cell backwards so the pickup is in front, then lean it 7 degrees so that the tank acts as a diffuser (a little bit anyway). I did some reading because I wasn't really aware of the purpose of the strakes in a diffuser. Apparently keeping the air separated into separate channels helps to keep the flow attached to the diffusers and helps to keep the air from turbulating. There was also some mention of using vortex generators at the leading edge of the diffuser to keep the airflow attached. Then I was thinking of the aero article where they used the airtabs under the nose of the Insight. Just thinking out loud...

There is a thread that is literally 4 days cold dealing with this exact subject. Search and read, in both the L6 and the turbo forum, read the FAQs that have to do with Turbos and the stickies in the turbo forum. Here is that thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=117493

I gotta disagree. For turbos wider gear ratios and tall rear gears seem to do best, at least according to those who drag race them. The 79 is the same as a regular old 280Z 5 speed, they didn't change ratios until 80, 80 is exactly the same as 81-83, but has a marginally closer 5th gear. I think the T5 is stronger and that should be your focus, but if you need a trans right away the 79 should be better than the 80-83 for your turbo application, and a tall rear ratio like 3.36 or 3.54 should be better as well. This might help: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/

I did patch mine with some scrap metal and a bunch of silicone, and for a long time I had no exhaust smell at all. Eventually my hatch seal gave up and then it was pretty bad.

In truth those flaps on the hatch vents don't work so hot and its more of a carbon monoxide induction system...

Oh Jeez... I didn't read the first part, I was just responding to the C cam bit. The CP engines were nowhere near stock. It wasn't just a camshaft. Buy the How to Modify your Nissan/Datsun OHC Engine. Read that and it will give you some idea of what you're in for to build a CP motor. Like Tony said, the engine is probably $15K. Then you get into the rest of the car. I think his estimate to build the whole car of $50K is probably on the low side, especially if you can't do all of the work yourself.

Finally got this done. I had to cut all the welds off from the first time, and this made my part look very ugly. Then I went and tacked it in place with the parts shifted 3/8". The wrong way. DAMN IT!!! So then I did it again, this time the right way. Got it reasonably close. Went to bolt it in the car, couldn't get the bolts started. Had to take it back out and open up the holes on the pedal box. 2nd time was able to get it on correctly. Hooked up the pedals and masters, everything looked peachy. Pulled it back out took the masters off again, and welded the box up. Now all I need are some bolts to weld in as studs and some paint and this sucker is done. This isn't that hard a project, but I sure managed to screw it up a bunch of times. FRUSTRATING! I got 3/4" and 7/8" masters. Hopefully they work out the way I want them to. I had tried Tom Holt's spreadsheet a while back to figure out the sizes, and it turns out his spreadsheet has some errors. There were a couple parameters I could change without making any difference in the results of the spreadsheet. I think in particular rotor diameter, and I think pad size too. It's been a while. Anyway, maybe I'll take some pics after I paint it.

Swivell should be swivel, since you're asking for spelling errors. If you can jack the thing up, you probably don't need to get flat on your back to blast it underneath. What's more the several hours of uncomfortable work will be much cheaper than rigging up the relatively expensive pneumatic casters, but they do exist. John Coffey has some huge ones on his "pig winder" http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=117584

You should search. It's been discussed at some length before. Which foam to use, which to avoid, the benefits and drawbacks. I know Cary (tube80z) did that to one of his cars years ago and he has given his experiences before. Search and ye shall find...

Hmm... I thought I responded to this earlier, it must not have gone thru. I would suggest that if you want to roll it over anything other than a super smooth surface you put pneumatic tires on the thing. I would also suggest that you soda blast it BEFORE you put it on the rotisserie. You can get the vast majority of the stuff, then cleanup the rest with a wire wheel, propane torch, chemicals, etc.

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=105319 shows the mounts, and that was the "hard" part of making it. I basically used the extra tubing from the 3rd engine stand and some 1x1x.120 for the diagonal braces, and some 1.5x1.5x.134 for the rear mount. The rear mount was SUPER easy for a 240. I took a little 4 or 5" section of the 1.5" square tube and drilled it to fit the bumper holes, then bolted them up to the body. Then I took a longer piece of the 1.5" square and welded it to the little sections that I had bolted to the body. Then I welded that to the rotating part of the engine stand. I don't know that I have any other pics of the car on the rotisserie other than these kinda fuzzy ones: If I had a flat garage floor I would have welded a tube between the front and the rear stands. As it is my garage floor slopes and is very rough, so each stand kinda "floats". At some points in the rotation the smaller wheels on the engine stand are off the ground. That freaked me out at first, but now I believe it is still relatively safe. After all there are two stands and each is good for 1000 lbs and they're carrying probably 600 lbs worth of shell between the two of them. Wider outriggers would make sense if your kids are going to use it like a jungle gym... When I first put it on it had fenders, full suspension, glass, interior, etc in it and it was really hard to spin, now that it's relatively stripped down it's a lot easier. When I put the rear struts on to work on the rear control arms, I can DEFINITELY feel the difference when it comes time to spin it around. Still I can pretty easily manage it by myself. Scariest part of the whole deal was putting the car on the rotisserie in the first place. I'm not looking forward to taking it back off either...

Your method of locking it down seems overly complex. Mine is made from engine stands, and has the same pin that slides into a hole to lock it in place. Here is a thread with height info. Mine clears by about 3 inches, and I think I made mine about 3" taller than what was suggested in that thread. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=104151

I changed your title after wondering for about the 3rd time today what the hell "Turbo?" was about.

Where did you come up with that??? C Production cars weren't limited in their cam selection. They ran HUGE cams. Enormous cams. The C cam is tiny tiny tiny. Plus it wasn't even introduced until 74. The Z had already won 3 championships by then.

I think that's contrary to the popular belief, OTM, but we may find out for sure soon.

You should definitely run SWEPCO 201 in the comp tranny. All the Porsche 911 guys with the steel synchros run it. I wouldn't put in too much ATF either, maybe 8 oz or so. Too much will thin it out, don't think you want that with the steel synchros...

I don't know that width is that critical. It wasn't in these articles (hopefully you can read these, if not PM me): http://autospeed.drive.com.au/A_3060/cms/article.html http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_3061/article.html

What kind of transmission? Obvious choice would be ATF I think. It has a ton of detergents. I run it 50/50 mix with SWEPCO 201 in my ZX 5 speed, some manuals require straight ATF as their regular oil.

I just sent a donation. You might use it towards this if you guys get your full day paid up. I was looking for something just like it, then gave up and sent cash, then Proxlamus sends me this link not 10 minutes later!!! Looks easy to tape on. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/02-06-Nissan-Altima-Vortex-Generator-Roof-Spoiler-03-04_W0QQitemZ280062178915QQihZ018QQcategoryZ33638QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I had to shave a little bit off of the corners for the front plates I think. The rears fit in without any trouble. Were I to do it again I think I'd make a plate and mount them on top, at least in the front. That's an extra 1/4 or so travel, and I think it looks a lot nicer. I would definitely NOT do them on top without the reinforcing plate.

Yep, that appears to be it... Microsoft and their "features"... I will say that the magazine is probably worth a subscription. Some of their other articles are right up the Hybrid Z alley...

I have to wonder if this is yet another reason to use Firefox instead of IE???